"Then we shall hear their larum, and they ours."
(Coriolanus, i. 4.)
Ger. Lärm, noise, is the same word. In Luther's time we also find Allerm.
We have the Arabic definite article in a great many words borrowed from Spanish. Alcalde, or alcade, and alguazil, common in Elizabethan literature, are two old friends from the Arabian Nights, the cadi and the wazir, or vizier. The Arabic article also occurs in acton, Old Fr. auqueton, now hoqueton, for al qutn (cotton), because originally used of a wadded coat—
"But Cranstoun's lance, of more avail,
Pierced through, like silk, the Borderer's mail;
Through shield, and jack, and acton past,
Deep in his bosom broke at last."
(Scott, Lay, iii. 6.)
In alligator, Span. el lagarto, the lizard, from Lat. lacertus, we have the Spanish definite article. See also lariat, p. [24].
A foreign word ending in a sibilant is sometimes mistaken for a plural. Thus Old Fr. assets (assez), enough, Lat. ad satis, has given Eng. assets, plural, with a barbarous, but useful, singular asset. Cherry is for cheris, from a dialect form of Fr. cerise, and sherry for sherris, from Xeres in Spain (see p. [51]). Falstaff opines that—
"A good sherris-sack[89] hath a twofold operation in it."
(2 Henry IV., iv. 3.)